Effects of assisted training with neurofeedback on EEG measures, executive function and mood in a healthy sample. [Efectos del entrenam. asistido con neurofeedback sobre el EEG, los procesos de función ejecutiva y el afecto en una muestra de pobl. normal]

Abstract

Efectos del entrenamiento asistido con neurofeedback sobre el EEG, los procesos de función ejecutiva y el estado de ánimo en una muestra de población normal Milena Vasquez, Marien Gadea, Evelio Garijo, Marta Aliño y Alicia Salvador Departamento de Psicobiologia, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de ValènciaResumen: El entrenamiento en neurofeedback (NF) consiste en enseñar a los individuos a modificar, regular y potenciar su patrón de actividad cerebral. El objetivo de nuestra investigación fue evaluar el efecto del entrenamiento sobre los procesos cognitivos de función ejecutiva y sobre el estado de ánimo en una muestra de población normal. Se seleccionó una muestra de 30 mujeres estudiantes universitarias, asignadas a tres grupos: HD: hemisferio derecho (n = 10), HI: hemisferio izquierdo (n = 10) y control (n = 10). Se entrenó durante una sola sesión el predominio del patrón beta y la inhibición del patrón theta y se realizó una evaluación pre y post-entrenamiento de la función ejecutiva (Iowa Gambling Test) y del estado de ánimo mediante autoinforme. Se encontró que el entrenamiento en NF produjo cambios positivos significativos en el rendimiento ejecutivo en el grupo HD. En relación con el EEG, se encontró una tendencia al cambio tras el entrenamiento de ondas beta. Se encontraron correlaciones significativas entre el rendimiento ejecutivo, el estado de ánimo negativo, y la banda de frecuencia theta. Se concluye que el protocolo resulta efectivo para potenciar aspectos de la función ejecutiva y que la disminución de ondas theta parece favorecer la disminución del estado de ánimo negativo. Palabras clave: Neurofeedback; EEG; función ejecutiva; Iowa Gambling Test; estado de ánimo; PANAS; POMS; ritmo theta; ritmo Beta.Title: Effects of assisted training with neurofeedback on EEG measures, executive function and mood in a healthy sample. Abstract: The training in neurofeedback (NF) consists of teaching individuals to modify, adjust and enhance their brain activity pattern. The aim of our research was to evaluate the effect of training on cognitive processes, specifically executive function, and mood in a non-clinical sample. A sample of 30 female college students were assigned to three groups: HD: right hemisphere (n = 10), HI: left hemisphere (n = 10) and control (n = 10). The dominance pattern of beta and the inhibition of the theta pattern were trained in a single session. Measures of executive function (Iowa Gambling Test) and questionnaires of mood were taken pre and post training. We found that NF training produced significant positive changes in executive performance in the HD group. In the EEG a tendency to improve beta rhythm after the training emerged too. Additionally, significant correlations were found between executive performance and negative mood in relation to theta frequency band. We conclude that the protocol seems effective to enhance some aspects of executive function as well as to decrease theta power improves the negative mood.

Neurofeedback training for cognitive performance improvement in healthy subjects: A systematic review.

“…Studies that focus on young adults as a target group administrate protocols to alter or improve various psychological processes such as working memory (Astrand, 2018;Sherwood et al, 2016), working and episodic memory (Hsueh et al, 2016;Wei et al, 2017), mood (Gruzelier, 2014a;Herwig et al, 2019), attention (Gadea et al, 2016;Jurewicz et al, 2018;Sherwood et al, 2019), mental imagery ability (Toppi et al, 2014), attention alongside mind-wandering (Gonçalves et al, 2018), attention and motor system excitability (Studer et al, 2014), auditory evoked potentials (Rieger et al, 2018), and executive functions (Enriquez-Geppert et al, 2017;Hosseini et al, 2016;Vasquez et al, 2015).…”

“…Only two empirical studies focused on investigating the effects of neurofeedback on executive functions (Hosseini et al, 2016;Vasquez et al, 2015). While Vasquez et al (2015) focused on the increase of beta (13-21 Hz) with inhibition of theta (4-7 Hz) band using one active electrode (Cz), Hosseini et al (2016) used Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to offer neurofeedback through measurements on changes in oxygenated hemoglobin in the prefrontal cortex using a 52channel EEG. Although different approaches were administrated, both studies presented significant improvements in executive functions.…”

EEG‐neurofeedback and executive function enhancement in healthy adults: A systematic review

“…In fact, the success of Enriquez-Geppert, Huster, Figge and collaborators (2014) and Wang and Hsieh (2013) might indicate that the amount of training needs to be high, at least more than 180 min, to induce significant NFT effects. Furthermore, our descriptive review pointed to the scarce efficacy of theta single-session NFT protocols (i.e., Gonçalves et al, 2018;Vasquez et al, 2015). Overall, our analysis suggested that NFT on frontal-midline theta measured from Fz (and neighboring electrodes) has been shown more frequently as effective in modulating this band and behavior than NFT protocols that did not include frontal-midline region electrodes.…”

“…A distinction should be drawn as two specific subprotocols were included, namely, low beta NFT targeting a frequency range from 14 to 18 Hz and SMR (12-15 Hz), none of which was successful. Except for two single-session studies (Gonçalves et al, 2018;Vasquez et al, 2015), NFT duration was generally high (120-528 min) and this does not seem to be the cause. In contrast, we observed frequent methodological drawbacks, especially in the "not successful" studies.…”

“…The study by Vasquez et al (2015) was classified as "partially successful". The 30-min single session of NFT, during which participants were required to downregulate theta while upregulating standard beta (13-21 Hz), did not induce changes in theta band but yielded positive results in the behavioral domain.…”